One Ok Rock -- Wasted Nights

 

From the recent article on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Plastic Love", I've received a number of comments (as I'd been expecting) regarding the popularity of certain Japanese bands, singers and songs around the world, and one such band has apparently been One OK Rock (pronounced One Oku Rock). For me, I've only known the name of the band but otherwise that's about it as for my knowledge. Commenter Brian Mitchell was kind enough to give me a primer along with a few recommended songs.

One of the first points of information is that the lead singer for One OK Rock is Takahiro Moriuchi（森内貴寛）. And this is where I feel like the usually unsociable guy finally being coaxed out to a school reunion and meeting for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president a couple of former buddy classmates who have since gotten married to each other and had kids. "Wow! You mean your son is a Grammy-winning musician?!" was my somewhat ersatz analogue to my reaction on finding out that Moriuchi is one of the sons of veteran kayo kyoku singers Shinichi Mori（森進一）and Masako Mori（森昌子）. Both of them have fairly long files here on KKP but again, I had no idea that their kid was even into music let alone being part of one of the most popular Japanese bands worldwide.  So, now I can place all of the Moris up thee with Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）and Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）along with Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）and Naotaro Moriyama（森山直太朗）as succeeding generations of Japanese singers (there are many more, I know).

Some other information that I've gleaned regarding One OK Rock is that Moriuchi and the band have been around since 2005, and have covered subgenres of rock ranging from alternative rock to pop punk. One of the songs that Brian recommended to me was "Wasted Nights", which was their February 2019 single that also has a placement on their ninth studio album "Eye of the Storm" that came out in the same month. 

I'd probably say that "Wasted Nights" is more of a pop-rock piece created by Moriuchi and looking at the stylishly grainy video, I had initially assumed from it and the title that the band had wanted to give a grand lament about kids wasting their nights away doing nothing and neglecting the future. Kinda sounds like a Mom and Dad sort of message. However, in actual fact, Moriuchi is exhorting his song as a grand anthem about not wasting those nights away and savoring every moment with your buddies and living every moment to their fullest since they will not return again. The video is there to help safeguard those precious memories. As a fellow who's not too far away from getting his pension, I can probably try to hammer that home to my niece's generation but I've got a feeling that "Wasted Nights" would be more effective.

And it did send the message home well. "Wasted Nights" became the most popular song on Japanese radio in the first half of 2019, according to the Wikipedia article on the song, and it peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart.